Exhibition floor talk
the churchie national emerging art prize
QUT Art Museum, Wednesday 15 November, 12:30 – 1:15pm, Free
Artists are continuing to provoke by challenging perceptions of what is contemporary, and by defining new realities. 'the churchie' provides insight into emerging trends and is an important element in the establishment of new ideas.
Celebrating its 30th year, this year's the churchie national emerging art prize ('the churchie') features artworks by 30 emerging artists from across Australia. The artists were selected from over 900 submissions by the pre-selection panel: QUT Art Museum Curator, Kevin Wilson, Assistant Curator of International Art at QAGOMA, Abigail Bernal and Head of Art at Churchie, Vicky Leighton.
'the churchie' has a reputation as one of Australia's 'to watch' art prizes, and it promises a glimpse into the future of the nation's contemporary art scene. Gain an insight into the inner workings of 'the churchie' at this exhibition floor talk with Curator Kevin Wilson.
'the churchie' is dedicated to supporting a new generation of artists with an annual non-acquisitive cash prize, an initiative of Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie). The 2017 guest judges for the prize are Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh, Executive Directors at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane.
This program is the final Art Suite Event for the year. Art Suite events are a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
fabric paint and embroidery floss on German linen
Courtesy the artist
Texta book club
The Memory Artist by Katherine Brabon
QUT Art Museum, Tuesday 14 November, 6pm, Free
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction (mostly) to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
To coincide with the exhibition The churchie national emerging art prize we are discussing The Memory Artist by Katherine Brabon.
How can hope exist when the past is so easily forgotten?
Pasha Ivanov is a child of the Freeze, born in Moscow during Brezhnev's repressive rule over the Soviet Union. As a small child, Pasha sat at the kitchen table night after night as his parents and their friends gathered to preserve the memory of Stalinist violence.
When Gorbachev promises glasnost (openness), Pasha, an eager twenty-four year old longs to create art and carry on the work of those who came before him. He writes and falls in love, yet that hope fragments and he lives a solitary life in St Petersburg until a phone call in the middle of the night summons both Moscow and memory.
Through recollections and observation, Pasha walks through the landscapes of history, from concrete tower suburbs to haunting former prison camps in the Arctic north. Pasha's search to find meaning leads him to assemble a fractured story of Russia's traumatic past.
Join us for a brief tour of the exhibition followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation about The Memory Artist.
Books can be purchased from the Gardens Point QUT Bookshop or from QUT Art Museum.
Artist talk
Cake Industries
QUT Art Museum, Sunday 29 October, 2 – 2:45pm, Free
For your last opportunity to experience the current exhibitions at QUT Art Museum, hear from exhibiting artists Cake Industries about their latest body of work in Machination, which marks a new direction in their ever-evolving practice. Darkly humorous and provocatively satirical, Cake Industries' performative mechatronic sculptures construct anachronistic narratives to reveal the struggles and absurdities of modern life. Their adoption of human/object hybrid forms combined with collaged archival video and sound helps forge a surreal world that offers a new perspective on our own world.
The artists Jesse Stevens and Dean Petersen with their work It's nice to be alive 2016
robotics and mixed media
Courtesy QUT Media
A stroll with Scenic
QUT Art Museum, Sunday 29 October, 1 – 1:30pm, Free
Join us for a stroll around QUT Gardens Point Campus with roaming sculpture Scenic, a pair of mechanical walking legs. Created by experimental artist duo Cake Industries (Jesse Stevens and Dean Petersen) as part of the Voyages series, Scenic takes visual cues from Luna Park Melbourne's 105-year-old Scenic Railway roller coaster. Purely mechanical, this sculpture embodies the symbiotic relationship between the original classic wooden roller-coaster and the audience that rides it. Watch and walk with Scenic as it slowly strolls through the campus, before returning to QUT Art Museum*. This is your last chance to see Scenic in action on the exhibition closing day for Machination.
*subject to conditions
The Voyages series has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Scenic - Voyages Series 2017
robotics and mixed media
Courtesy Cake Industries
Collection highlight
Charles Blackman
QUT Art Museum, Saturday 21 October, 2 – 3pm, Free
Join us for the third in a series of public discussions highlighting selected works from the QUT Art Collection.
Established in 1945, the QUT Art Collection predates the QUT Art Museum by fifty-five years. Comprising more than 2000 objects, the collection includes paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and works on paper, chiefly by Australian artists. This month's collection highlights are three prints by renowned Australian artist Charles Blackman OBE: Two girls (1956), a monotype on tracing paper; Mid-air (1966-67), a lithograph; and Hi diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle (1976), a colour drypoint. These works will be temporarily on display and discussed in conjunction with a presentation on Blackman's life and practice.
Born in Sydney in 1928, Charles Blackman is recognised as one of Australia's greatest modern artists. His work spans painting, drawing, and printmaking, but he is most well-known for his distinct style of figuration, often exploring the dualities and complexities of life. He is well known for his Schoolgirl and Alice in Wonderland series created in the 1950s.
Ahead of the discussion, attendees are encouraged to view the exhibitions Why future still needs us: AI and humanity and Machination, showing at QUT Art Museum.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
Two girls 1956
monotype on tracing paper
Gift of William George (Monty) Howard, 2007
Photo: Carl Warner
Texta book club
The Island Will Sink by Briohny Doyle
QUT Art Museum, Tuesday 5 September, 6pm, Free
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction (mostly) to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
To coincide with the exhibitions Why future still needs us: AI and humanity and Machination we are discussing The Island Will Sink by Briohny Doyle.
With the threat of the future perpetually on the brink of collapse, catastrophe is our most popular entertainment. The energy crisis has come and gone and the world watches as Pitcairn Island sinks into the Pacific, wondering if this will be the end of everything. Amongst it all, Max Galleon, anxious family man and blockbuster auteur, lives a life that he cannot remember.
If the lines between real and unreal are fully blurred, can you really trust anyone, even yourself?
Briohny Doyle is a Melbourne-based writer and academic. Her work has appeared in publications like The Lifted Brow, The Age, Overland, Going Down Swinging and Meanjin, among others, and she has performed her work at the Sydney Festival and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Join us for a brief tour of the exhibitions followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation about The Island Will Sink.
Books can be purchased from the Gardens Point QUT Bookshop or from QUT Art Museum.
Workshop
Machine learning for creatives
QUT Art Museum and D block, room 106, Monday 21 August, 4 – 7pm, $25
Join our unique workshop and discover how to use machine learning technology in creative practice. Designed for artists and students, this hands-on workshop is facilitated by visiting artists from Nabi E.I. Lab in Seoul, Korea and explores innovative technologies. You will also join a floor talk on the exhibition Why future still needs us: AI and humanity, an Art Center Nabi touring exhibition at QUT Art Museum.
This is an exciting opportunity to explore Artificial Intelligence and its wide-ranging applications. Investigate machine learning and deep learning through the creative works of practicing artists experimenting in the field today and examine the critical issues of AI and humanity such as creativity, intuition, and emotion. Participants will have the chance to experiment with a basic machine learning algorithm in the workshop.
For: This workshop is suitable for university students and media artists who have a basic knowledge of programming
What to bring: Your own laptop and charger (please advise if you do not have your own laptop, and we will provide one for you)
This event is in association with Robotronica.
Art Center Nabi is well known internationally for its goal of humanising technology and fully integrating it with our cultural life in order to open up new space for creative practices. Art Center Nabi believes that this can only be achieved with fruitful collaboration and understanding between the fields of science, technology, humanities and the arts
The listed words and the fragmented meanings (detail) 2016
Dimensions variable, LSTM-RNN based sentence generation software
Courtesy Art Center Nabi
Artbots
Registrar's Garden, QUT Art Museum, Sunday 20 August, 9am – 4pm, Free
Drop in all-ages activity, no bookings required
Make your mark using LEGO Robotics! Visit the Registrar's Garden behind QUT Art Museum to meet a drawing robot who will work collaboratively with you to create your own artwork.
While you're there, be sure to discover more about robots and artificial intelligence in the galleries at QUT Art Museum. Enter a surreal retro robotic world presented by Artist duo Cake Industries in their exhibition Machination, and find out how artificial intelligence can be used creatively by artists in the exhibition Why future still needs us: AI and humanity.
Artbots is a QUT Art Museum and The Cube collaboration and this event is in association with Robotronica.
Special exhibition preview and artist talks for Why future still needs us: AI and humanity and Machination
QUT Art Museum, Saturday 19 August, 2 – 3:30pm, Free
Join a special preview and artist talks for two new exhibitions at QUT Art Museum that explore relationships between humans, creativity and the machine; Why future still needs us: AI and humanity and Machination. These shows officially open on Sunday 20 August in conjunction with Robotronica, QUT's free public robotics and technology spectacular at Gardens Point campus.
An Art Center Nabi (Korea) touring exhibition, Why future still needs us: AI and humanity speakers include Soh Yeong Roh and Doo Eun Choi, Director and Chief Curator at the Art Center Nabi, as well as Maurice Benayoun, Artist and Professor of Creative Media, City University Hong Kong. They discuss the evolving role of artificial intelligence as both a creator and an amplified collaborator, which can learn by itself and work beyond the existing modes of human-machine interaction, raising questions about humanity in a future machine age.
Cake Industries experimental artist duo Jesse Stevens and Dean Petersen also discuss Machination. Harking back to the 1950s, a time when our electronic journey started in earnest, this surreal exhibition features performative mechatronic sculptures which combine human/object hybrid forms with collaged archival video and sound, offering a new perspective on our own world.
This event is in association with Robotronica.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
Likeness 2017 (detail)
Courtesy of the artists
Artificial Intelligence, All too Human – public lecture by Maurice Benayoun
QUT Creative Industries Precinct, corner Musk Avenue and Gona Parade, Kelvin Grove, Building Z9, Level 6
Friday 18 August, 6pm, Free
Join artist Maurice Benayoun, a French pioneer new-media artist and theorist based in Paris and Hong Kong, for his public lecture Artificial intelligence, All too Human. When we are scared by the rise of artificial intelligence, we are scared by ourselves, 'our inner alien'. Because we know, and we forget, that what we call 'artificial' is 'human made'. We don't want artificial intelligence to control us, but we want to control, decide and design through artificial intelligence. That is why we need human creativity in the age of artificial intelligence. After all, artificial intelligence is human 'by design', and we are still at the stage of development when we can ask questions about the nature of human emotions, and the role of humans in the age of artificial intelligence.
Maurice Benayoun is an exhibiting artist in Why future still needs us: AI and humanity, an Art Center Nabi (Korea) touring exhibition showing at QUT Art Museum from 20 August to 29 October 2017. Read more.
This event is in association with Robotronica.
Brain Factory 2016 (installation detail)
Courtesy Art Center Nabi
Louise Hearman exhibition floor talk
QUT Art Museum, Wednesday 12 July, 12.30pm – 1.15pm, Free
Delve into the shadows and discover what is glimmering in the half-light or lurking in the darkness at QUT Art Museum's Louise Hearman exhibition floor talk.
Louise Hearman, winner of the 2016 Archibald Prize for her portrait of Barry Humphries, is a Melbourne based artist who is best known for her dark, dream-like paintings where things may, or may not be, as they seem. Often said to have a cinematic quality, like film stills Hearman's surreal paintings capture transient moments of imaginary time.
This is Louise Hearman's first major museum survey and features works from across her 25-year practice. Curated by Anna Davis, this is a touring exhibition organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
Texta book club
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
QUT Art Museum, Tuesday 20 June, 6pm, Free
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction (mostly) to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
To coincide with the exhibition Louise Hearman we are discussing Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farming family to await execution. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her but as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they have heard. Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?
Join us for a brief tour of the exhibitions followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation about Burial Rites.
Books can be purchased from the Gardens Point QUT Bookshop or from QUT Art Museum.
Collection highlight
Adam Cullen
QUT Art Museum, Friday 16 June, 2 – 3pm, Free
Join us for the second in a series of public discussions highlighting selected works from the QUT Art Collection.
Established in 1945, the QUT Art Collection predates the QUT Art Museum by fifty-five years. Comprising more than 2000 objects, the collection includes paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and works on paper, chiefly by Australian artists. This month's collection highlights are Gwabegar fish man (2003) and Future pet (2004) by esteemed artist Adam Cullen (1965-2012). These two works will be temporarily on display and a discussion on Cullen's practice co-presented by Artist, Aaron Butt and Public Programs Officer at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, Sarah Barron.
Born in Sydney in 1965 and rising to prominence upon winning the 2000 Archibald Prize, Adam Cullen has come to be recognised as one of Australia's greatest contemporary artists. His work spans painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking, but he is most well-known for his large, bold and expressive paintings of animals and humans, often exploring the complex underbelly of contemporary life. Challenging yet sophisticated, Cullen's unique works are both beautiful and shocking in equal measure.
Ahead of the discussion, attendees are encouraged to view the exhibition Louise Hearman, showing at QUT Art Museum.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
An afternoon with Louise Hearman
QUT Gardens Theatre, Saturday 3 June, 2:30 – 3:30pm, Free
The power of Hearman's pictures is in the way they move us emotionally; while we may never comprehend exactly what we are seeing, we can feel their impact in our body and mind ...
Join us for an unmissable afternoon with respected contemporary Australian artist Louise Hearman in conversation with Anna Davis, Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). Hosted by Susan Johnson, an award-winning author and journalist with the Courier Mail, hear in-depth about Louise's work and the processes that lead to the selection of works for the exhibition.
Louise Hearman, winner of the 2016 Archibald Prize for her portrait of Barry Humphries, is a Melbourne based artist who is best known for her dark, dream-like paintings where things may, or may not be, as they seem. Often said to have a cinematic quality, like film stills Hearman's surreal paintings capture transient moments of imaginary time.
This event is presented in conjunction with the first major museum survey of Hearman's work, curated by Anna Davis and showing at QUT Art Museum from 3 June to 6 August 2017. Featuring works from 1990 – 2016, this is a touring exhibition organised by the MCA in Sydney.
Ahead of the discussion, attendees are encouraged to view the exhibition Louise Hearman, showing at QUT Art Museum. A short walk from QUT Gardens Theatre, QUT Art Museum weekend opening hours are 12pm – 4pm.
This event is supported by Womankind magazine, an advertising-free women's magazine on self, identity and meaning in today's society. Free copies will be available exclusively for attendees of An afternoon with Louise Hearman.
Exhibition floor talk
William Robinson: Genesis and tour of Old Government House
Old Government House and William Robinson Gallery, Sunday 21 May, 2 – 3pm, Free
Explore Old Government House and enjoy a floor talk on the current exhibition William Robinson: Genesis.
Old Government House is a grand heritage listed building that was once the hub of Colonial life in Brisbane. Completed in 1862, the House was home to the first Governor of Queensland and was the state's first public building.
William Robinson: Genesis brings together a selection of rarely seen works on paper alongside those that have been exhibited more widely. This exhibition highlights Robinson's distinctive use of color and the artist's move towards the multidimensional perspective for which his large landscape paintings are so acclaimed, and which has seen him become one of Australia's greatest living artists.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
Mother's Day Art
Make your own clay pinch pot
QUT Art Museum, Mother's Day Sunday 14 May, drop in activity between 10am – 2pm, Free
Make this Mother's Day one to remember with a free clay workshop at QUT Art Museum. Join experienced ceramist Virginia Jones to make your very own clay pinch pot to take home. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Earth and fire: Ceramics from the QUT Art Collection, you are invited to take time to enjoy the ceramic art and dedicated reading room during your visit.
Jones first made pinch pots in the 80s in a village in Papua New Guinea, where there is a long tradition of pinching and coiling pots for cooking, serving and storing food. Some of the traditional clay pots were decorated and depicted a story or represented family groups.
This activity is open to all ages, no previous experience required. Sessions are 30 minutes long and run on the hour and half hour. Ensure your place by making a booking or drop-in anytime and stay for your chosen duration as spaces allow.
Visitors can extend this activity with a Mother's Day High Tea at nearby Old Government House. Bookings are essential.
Contemporary Curating
The Gig Economy
QUT Art Museum, Thursday 11 May, 6:15 – 8:15pm, Free
A public forum presented by NAVA, QCA Griffith University, and QUT Art Museum; supported by ACUADS.
NAVA recently launched a new campaign for artists' fees. In this forum, we want to discuss issues of precarity when it comes to artists' fees and labour, especially given the casualisation and changing nature of arts work. Contemporary Curating: The Gig Economy will examine the changing role of the curator, both in QLD and internationally, and ask: how does the shifting global economy and workforce impede or expand the role of an Independent curator?
This forum will explore the role of the contemporary curator by interrogating curating as a creative act that shapes and leads artistic discourse within and outside institutional spaces. Speakers at this forum will investigate the global trajectory of the independent curator, and address the opportunities and challenges of independent work in the gig economy.
Speakers:
Chantal Fraser – independent artist and curator
Professor Pat Hoffie – Director SECAP (Sustainable Environment through Culture, Asia-Pacific), Griffith University
Kellee Uhr – curator, Artisan
Samantha Littley – curator, UQ Art Museum
Texta book club
Position doubtful: Mapping landscapes and memories by Kim Mahood
QUT Art Museum, Tuesday 2 May, 6pm, Free
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction (mostly) to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
To coincide with the exhibitions Earth and fire: Ceramics from the QUT Art Collection and Less than: Art and reductionism we are discussing Position doubtful: Mapping landscapes and memories by Kim Mahood.
For more than two decades, writer and artist Kim Mahood has been returning to the Tanami desert country in far north-western Australia where, as a child, she lived with her family on a remote cattle station. The land is timeless, but much has changed: the station has been handed back to its traditional owners; the mining companies have arrived; and Aboriginal art has flourished. This memoir is a beautiful and intense exploration of friendships, landscape, and homecoming. Written with great energy and humour, Position Doubtful offers a unique portrait of the complexities of black and white relations in contemporary Australia.
Join us for a brief tour of the exhibitions followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation about Kim Mahood's memoir.
Books can be purchased from the Gardens Point QUT Bookshop or from QUT Art Museum.
Exhibition floor talk
Earth and fire: Ceramics from the QUT Art Collection and Less than: Art and reductionism
QUT Art Museum, Saturday 22 April, 2 – 3pm, Free
Experience the two current exhibitions at QUT Art Museum, Earth and fire: Ceramics from the QUT Art Collection and Less than: Art and reductionism, with free exhibition floor talks.
Ceramics have been enjoying somewhat of a revival in recent times, and QUT's Art Collection encompasses over 300 ceramic objects dating mainly from the 1970s onwards. Earth and Fire: Ceramics from the QUT Art Collection explores the renewed interest in ceramics, which has been attributed to its defiantly low-tech approach as a reaction to the ubiquity of digital technology–a slowing down and a return to traditional craftsmanship in an era of point-and-click.
Less Than: Art and reductionism delves into the artist's pursuit of nothingness–or at least the next best thing–less. Reductionist techniques have been used by artists during the last century, and today are more relevant than ever. This exhibition presents works from the QUT Art Collection by Australian and international artists who employ a reductive approach or aesthetic, dating from the 1960s to now.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group.
Upcoming events
Sunday 21 May 2–3pm, William Robinson Gallery
Exhibition floor talk William Robinson: Genesis and tour of Old Government House
Friday 16 June 2–3pm, QUT Art Museum
Collection highlight: Adam Cullen
Sounds of silence
Meditation in the museum
QUT Art Museum, Tuesdays 28 March, 4 April and 11 April, 12:30 – 1:15pm, Free
Join us for a unique approach to experiencing the minimalist artworks in the exhibition Less than: Art and reductionism, with a guided meditation session facilitated by Zen practitioner Emma Cain from Open Way Zen. Finding and cultivating a quiet environment, both mental and physical, is becoming more and more difficult. Enjoy an opportunity for silence and stillness by participating in a guided meditation session at QUT Art Museum, and develop both your personal wellbeing and your appreciation of minimal and reductive art.
Please register for as many sessions as you would like to attend.
Collection highlight
John Olsen
QUT Art Museum, Saturday 18 March, 2–3pm, Free
Join us for the first in a series of public discussions highlighting specific works from the QUT Art Collection. Established in 1945, the QUT Art Collection predates the QUT Art Museum by fifty-five years. Comprising more than 2000 objects, the collection includes paintings, sculptures, decorative arts and works on paper, chiefly by Australian artists. This month's collection highlight is Kangaroo entering the void1975 by esteemed artist John Olsen. A discussion of this work will be complimented by a presentation on Olsen's life and practice.
Born in Newcastle in 1928, John Olsen has come to be recognised as one of Australia's greatest living artists. His work spans painting, ceramics, tapestry and printmaking, identifiable through his distinctive and energetic style. Influenced by his travels throughout Australia, as well as Europe, Africa and America, Olsen brings a lyrical life to the scenes he depicts. In his landscape works, Olsen often shifts the viewpoint to an aerial perspective, creating the horizon-less landscape. Olsen has been the recipient of the Wynne Prize, Sulman Prize and Archibald Prize and awarded both an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Order of Australia (AO) for his services to the arts.
This event is part of the Art Suite Events; a series of free monthly events at QUT Art Museum and William Robinson Gallery, presented in proud partnership with Art Series Hotel Group
Upcoming events
Saturday 22 April 2–3pm, QUT Art Museum
Exhibition floor talk Earth & fire: Ceramics from the QUT Art Collectionand Less than: Art & reductionism
Sunday 21 May 2–3pm, William Robinson Gallery
Exhibition floor talk William Robinson: Genesis and tour of Old Government House
Friday 16 June 2–3pm, QUT Art Museum
Collection highlight: Adam Cullen
Texta book club
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
QUT Art Museum, Tuesday 28 February, 6pm, Free
Texta is no ordinary book club; it's for people who love art. We use fiction (mostly) to unpack the subjects, themes and emotions of art. Conversation is never colourless, and is facilitated by our brains trust from QUT Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
The evening commences with a brief tour of the current exhibition, followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of conversation about the title of choice.
To coincide with GLASS: art design architecture our first book for the year is Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges.
Borges is described as one of the greatest Spanish language writers of the twentieth century. Fictions is a celebrated compendium of his short fictional stories with appeal for first time readers of Borges' work and dedicated fans. Throughout his stories, poems and essays, Borges considers whether art and the labyrinthine artefacts he so often describes can ever mirror reality. His work captures many of intellectual and existential questions characteristic of modernism and later post-modernism.
Join us for a brief tour of the exhibition followed by a glass of wine and generous amounts of healthy conversation about Fictions.
Books can be purchased from the Gardens Point QUT Bookshop or from QUT Art Museum.
Want more? Also read The Aleph, a short story by Borges, Mirrors, a poem by Borges and Borges' Short Stories A Reader's Guide by Rex Butler (2010).
In-conversation with Janet Laurence
QUT Art Museum, Saturday 18 February, 2pm, Free
Janet Laurence is one of Australia's most celebrated artists. Her evocative and lyrical works often reference architecture and the natural environment, and engage with the interconnections between art, science, imagination and memory. Join the artist and Kyla McFarlane (Acting Curatorial Manager, Australian Art at Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art), for a discussion on her practice and work, Natural History (Landscape and Residues Series), which features in the exhibition GLASS: art design architecture. This event is supported by JamFactory.
Mini-Roadshow
Glass with Andy McConnell
Old Government House, Saturday 11 February, 12 – 1:30pm, Free
Booked out
Join renowned glass authority, Andy McConnell (BBC's Antiques Roadshow fame) for an entertaining afternoon of insights into this mesmerising material. In show-and-tell style, Andy will identify and demystify a selection of historic glass objects.
A specialist glass dealer, Andy runs Britain's largest antique and vintage glass shop, Glass Etc., together with his wife Helen in the Sussex seaside town of Rye. He has also lectured and published widely on the subject and was the first glass specialist recruited to BBC TV's Antiques Roadshow. This event coincides with the exhibition GLASS: art design architecture at QUT Art Museum, and is supported by JamFactory and QUT Institute for Future Environments.
Andy McConnell is a keynote speaker at QUT IFE and The University of Queensland supported event, The Australian Microbeam Analysis Society (AMAS) 14th Australian Microbeam Biennial Symposium 6 – 10 February 2017.
Lecture
The Impact of Glass with Andy McConnell
Old Government House, Friday 10 February, 12 – 1pm, Free
Glass is the greatest substance ever created and yet it remains largely invisible to us, in more ways than one
This lunch-box lecture by renowned glass authority, Andy McConnell (BBC's Antiques Roadshow fame), examines the astonishing impact of glass on both our lives and those of our ancestors.
McConnell explores the catalytic effect that glass has had across the range of human endeavour since the Renaissance: through science, medicine and technology to architecture, travel and communications.
Where, for instance, would we be without spectacles, light bulbs and windscreens? How many of us would be alive if it were not for the identification of germs and microbes through the use of microscope lenses? And how pleasurable would life be without window glass and loft insulation? Without glass, we would have no computers, televisions, films, telephones...
Glass is a magical substance whose role in transforming our lives is both immeasurable and almost entirely unrecognised. This talk attempts to put this omission to rights.
This event coincides with the exhibition GLASS: art design architecture at QUT Art Museum, and is supported by JamFactory and QUT Institute for Future Environments.
Andy McConnell is a keynote speaker at QUT IFE and The University of Queensland supported event, The Australian Microbeam Analysis Society (AMAS) 14th Australian Microbeam Biennial Symposium 6 – 10 February 2017.
